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Are you managing a chess club? Have you thought of using a system to rate the performance of the players? I list a few solutions for chess clubs looking for chess rating software.

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What’s a rating system

As Wikipedia says, a chess rating system is “a system used in chess to calculate an estimate of the strength of the player, based on his or her performance versus other players”.

Why to use an internal rating system in a chess club

I’ll give you at least 4 reasons why you should adopt a chess rating system in your chess club and make the ranking and stats publicly available to the members of the club:

1. You can better understand who is doing well and who needs more coaching and learning support
2. You can use the ladder to identify sections for specific internal tournaments, where players can actually play against same-level opponents and have a chance to win. Also, it’s not fun for an expert player to play too much often against a much weaker player (or viceversa). A laddered ranking avoids this in defining the pools for the sections
3. An updated ranking is useful to select the team players when the club plays in external competitions and tournaments
4. Having a rating and being able to see where they are in the ranking also stimulate the competitivity in most of the players – at least in my experience

There are different rating systems

The Wikipedia page on the chess rating systems lists the most common rating systems in use to calculate the strength of a player.

Chess federations around the world use different rating systems and there are pros and cons for each of them. Popular online chess platforms like chess.com and Internet Chess Club also often adopt their own internal rating systems.

The calculation mechanisms, the algorithms and the variables used to calculate the rating of a player differ from system to system but there are similarities.

In most of the systems a higher number indicates a stronger player.

In general, players’ ratings go up if they perform better than expected and down if they perform worse than expected. Calculations can be applied after a single match or after a tournament.

In calculating the change, the rating systems usually take into considerations factors such as the rating difference between the opponents, the number of rated matches previously played by each player and so on.

Most of the systems are used to recalculate ratings after a tournament or match but some are used to recalculate ratings after individual games.

Elo and Glicko

The two most commonly adopted chess rating systems are the Elo system and the Glicko system.

The Elo system has been used since the 1960s and it’s currently adopted by the FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs – or World Chess Federation) and by federations such as the USCF (United States Chess Federation) (with some changes to the original system).

The Glicko system is used by other federations such as the ACF (Australian Chess Federation) and platforms like chess.com.

You can find here a quick read on the difference between the Elo and the Glicko systems. Here is another interesting article on how the ratings on the two systems correspond.

Regardless of the technicalities and the substantial differences between the various chess rating systems used in the world, what you probably need for your club is just a software which easily enough allows you to rate the club players following their performance in internal matches. This rating should be fair and take into consideration the basic variables we highlighted above.

In particular, a good rating system for your club should take into account the rating difference between the opponents and the number of rated matches previously played by each player (which impacts on the reliability of the rating – the rating of a player who has played 3 rated matches only is not as reliable as the one of a player who has played 1,000 rated matches).

The best solution is to use one of the chess rating programs listed below.

Alternatively, if you are managing a small club with very limited activity, you could setup a manual process to calculate the rating: assign new players ratings, manually calculate ratings after matches or tournaments, and save the data to the appropriate database file (excel or whatever else you are using).

You could even use tournament/pairing programs such as Swiss Master or Swiss Manager to calculate a post-event rating, or chess rating online calculators like this Chess Elo Rating Calculator.

This is a lot of manual work though, and it could be very hard if your club is pretty active.

Thatìs why I would recommend use the programs below to make this process easier. You will find below a list of possible chess rating programs which can help you calculate the rating of the players of your club and automate as much possible.

Chess rating software

Chess Ranking Assistant

Chess Ranking Assistant is my favourite solution.

It’s a great free Excel add-in – which means you add it to Excel and then you simply work in Excel. To add it to Excel, simply run the installer which you download from the page of Chess Ranking Assistant. You will need at least Excel 2007 to make it work.

This add-in generates an excel file which will contain all you need for your club rating system and which you can edit as a normal excel file.

The rating system of Chess Ranking Assistant is based on the Glicko rating system.

You can add players and edit a players’ list, easily add matches and results, automatically generate ratings and update them, check the updated list of players by rating or other sorting criteria, get detailed stats and history for each player, and even search for specific players or matches played by specific players.

Chess Ranking Assistant also allows you to create single sheets for each of the players in your club, split junior and senior players and create a junior’s ladder. It also generates a few extra tabs in the file, including an attendance sheet, ranking by matches played etc.

A great feature is the possibility to copy and paste into your rating file data from other excel files or from tournaments programs like Swiss Master (you will need to export to Excel from this program and then copy to your rating file).

What I also appreciate is the possibility to easily export to pdf or to web as .htm, which is a must if you have a club website and want to keep your members up to date with their rating and the club ranking.

Chess Ranking Assistant is a very useful and versatile tool which I definitely recommend. Check it live on my chess club live rating page.

Chess Ladder

Chess Ladder, created by Fred Mellender, can be used to manage a chess ladder for a chess club. It’s part of a free kit of programs useful to run a chess club, which includes a tournament manager club too.

The program calculates a rating for each player using a version of the Elo rating system that is very similar to the one used by USCF.

I tried this program and it’s actually very easy to use.

I still prefer Chess Ranking Assistant though, which offers extra features including the possibility to copy and paste lists of players and results from Excel files (Chess Ladder requires you to input both players and match results one by one – if you have to input dozens of results every week this might a very tedious job). Chess Ranking Assistant also offers the possibility to export to a .htm file I can use on the club website, while I couldn’t find this feature in Chess Ladder.

A nice feature of this program is that players can easily enter the result of the game by themselves, which might save time to the controller/manager/rating officer of the club.

Find here the documentation for Chess Ladder.

It works in Windows only and you will need Microsoft’s .NET Framework to make it work.

Rankade

Rankade is a premium web-browser based platform, also available as Google and Apple app, which can be used to rate players in several games and sports, including chess.

Rankade uses a rating system which calculates the “ree score” of a player via a proprietary ranking algorithm which can be used in a variety of contexts (for example, multiplayers’ games). See here the comparison between Elo, Glicko and Ree.

The free version allows to add up to 20 players, while the premium version offers unlimited players for a limited cost of EUR 12,00 per year.

The interface is nice and pretty intuitive and allows you to add players, add matches and results, check the ranking online, see graphs with stats on the players, and more.

You can also export the stats to other formats (option available to premium members only). If you are interested, you can also add the emails of the players and so they can receive notifications and updates, and interact via in-app messages.

The only negative note is that I couldn’t find a way to import players or matches from other files or programs (while Chess Ranking Assistant, working in Excel, easily allows to import excel data from tournament programs – and this saves me a lot of time in managing my club).

EloRater

Elo Rater is an old free chess rating program whose rating system is based on Elo/USCF, or on Harkness (which was the rating system used by FIDE before they switched to Elo). You can choose which one to show for the players and easily switch from Elo to Harkness or viceversa.

Elo Rater was developed in 1991 and it hasn’t been updated in the last (many) years but it still runs on my computer.

It allows you to easily create list of players, add matches and results, and calculate the new rating of the players. Unfortunately, you cannot print or export from this program it to other formats, so this limits a lot the potential usefulness of this program.

Other chess rating software

I haven’t tried yet a few other software which I list below:

Chess Club Manager by Think Like a King: this is a premium suite which includes a comprehensive set of chess club ranking, chess club management and chess learning software solutions for clubs, coaches, and students. The price is multi-leveled and depends on the packages you add and on the number of members of the club which will use the software. The cheapest offer for clubs with a tight budget starts at $200 per year. My opinion is that it seems a bit over the top for a school club while could be useful in chess clubs with a dedicated yearly budget.

Chess Rating Management System: this free sofware, which runs on My SQL, is designed to help different chess clubs to set up their own rating system. It uses USCF approximation formulas for rating calculations.

If you use other chess rating software in your club and would like it to list it here, just let me know in the comments or get in touch with me!

5 amazing chess variants are waiting for you on Chess.com

There's much more to play on Chess.com than just... chess! Fun 'chess variants' can be a great way to mix things up and apply your chess skills in different and exciting ways.

You can play:

• Bughouse
• Crazyhouse
• Chess960 (AKA Fischer Random).

Each of these variants has been given a small description below, and links to a full 'beginner's guide' on the game. First, let's review how to find and play these games on Chess.com:

1) Go to the Live Chess page

Hold your mouse over the 'Play' menu and click 'Live Chess':

2) Select the Game Type

Click the 'game type' dropdown

3) Choose the Variant

Choose the type of variant you'd like to play

For a quick description of the basic goals and differences in each variant compared to traditional chess, simply hold your mouse over the '?' icon to get a brief pop-up description:

Each variant is explained in the '?' symbol at the right side

Rules and Variant Intros Below:

1. Bughouse:

Bughouse is a variant of chess played by four players in teams (partnerships) of two on two separate chessboards. Each partner plays an opposing team member with the goal being to win the game by normal means (checkmate or timeout). One partner plays Black, the other White. Partners help each other by capturing enemy pieces which their partner may then place (drop) on an empty square on their turn. (Click here for Tips for Beginners)

• When you capture one of your opponent's pieces, it is immediately passed to your teammate's 'piece bank' for him or her to use at their discretion.
• On any turn, instead of making a move, a player can 'drop' any piece from their 'bank' to any open square on the board.
• Pawns may not be dropped on the 1st or 8th ranks.
• A pawn that is placed on the 2nd rank may move two squares on its first move, as in standard chess.
• Pawns that have promoted and are then captured go into the 'bank' as pawns, not as the piece to which they promoted. Such promoted pieces are called 'counterfeits.'
• A bughouse game is over when a game on either board ends in checkmate, resignation, or timeout. There are no draws in bughouse.

Bughouse online chess game at Chess.com

2. Crazyhouse:

Chess Variants Org

Crazyhouse is a variant which follows most of the normal rules of chess, except that captured pieces can be reintroduced to the board on your turn. (Crazyhouse Tips for Beginners coming soon!)

• The pieces move the same way that they do in traditional chess.
• Games can still end in the same way: checkmate, stalemate, and time-out.
• Captured pieces reverse their color and are added to the capturing player's 'bank.'
• On your turn, instead of making a move ,you may choose to 'drop'a piece from your 'bank' onto any open square on the board.
• You can drop a piece from your bank to block a check, even in a position that would otherwise have been checkmate (i.e. without the piece from your bank to drop).
• You may drop a piece to both check and checkmate the enemy king.
• Pawns may not be dropped on the 1st or 8th ranks.
• Pawns that have promoted and are then captured go into the bank as pawns, not as the piece they promoted to.

Crazyhouse online chess game at Chess.com

3. 3-Check:

3-Check is a simple variant with one clear task in mind: Check the king as many times as you can! Normal rules apply, but you can also win (or lose!) a game by checking (or getting checked) 3 times in total. (3-Check Tips for Beginners coming soon!)

Chess Variants Engines

• Games can still end in the traditional ways of checkmate, stalemate and time-out.
• The game can also end if a player checks their opponent's king three times.
• A move that results in a double-check only counts as one check towards the 'total check score.'

3-Check online chess game at Chess.com

4. King of the Hill:

The Chess Variants Club Download For Mac Download

King of the Hill or 'KOTH' is an exciting variant in which the goal is to get your king to the center of the board or 'top of the hill'. (King of the Hill Tips for Beginners coming soon!)

• Games can still end in the traditional ways of checkmate, stalemate and time-out.
• The game can also end when a player moves their king to any of the four central squares.
• e4, d4, e5, and d5 are 'top of the hill' squares, winning the game on the spot for either White or Black, regardless of the nature of the position.

King of the Hill (KOTH) online chess game at Chess.com

5. Chess960 (Fischer Random):

Chess960, or Fischer Random, is a variant invented by the late World Champion Bobby Fischer. The rules of the game are the same as standard chess, but in an effort to reduce the impact of opening theory, the pieces have been randomly shuffled on each player's back rank. (Launch a challenge to play a chess960 game).

Variant Chess Games

• Games end in the traditional ways of checkmate, stalemate and time-out.
• Bishops must still be on opposite colors in the initial Chess960 position.
• The king must be between the rooks to maintain the ability to castle both ways. That means a king can only be placed between the squares b1 and g1 or b8 and g8 for Black.
• This means:
  • No matter the location of the king and rook, standard rules of castling apply. It must be the first move for both king and rook, the king may not travel into or through check, and there may be no pieces on any square that either piece travels through.
  • The king and rook end the process of castling where they would in a standard chess game. Example: Even if a white king is on b1 and a rook is on e1, castling kingside would involve dragging the white king to g1 (its final destination square), which will automatically move the white rook from e1 to f1, as White will always have the king on g1 and the rook on f1 in the final castled position.

Chess Variants Wiki

Fischer Random (Chess960) online chess game at Chess.com

Recommended Resources:

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